The Ethical Standards in Health and Life Science Group (ESHLSG)

The newly created ESHLSG which is a multi-stakeholder group of 16 healthcare organisations has launched a survey about medical education. The aim of this survey is to establish standards about the purpose, the support and the transparency of medical education given to health professionals by pharmaceutical companies. This is an online survey on the website of the ESHLSG and the outcomes will likely affect the current practice.

Medical education events are widely sponsored by pharmaceutical companies in order to support the continuing training of health professionals and insure a high level of knowledge. Commercial organisations support medical education in the NHS through a variety of activities ranging from small, local meetings to large independent scientific congresses. Such activities are either supported directly (i.e. the company leads and directly funds all content and logistics) or indirectly (i.e. the company provides an unrestricted grant). The relationship between industry and health professionals in the context of medical education continues to be raised by various stakeholders as a point of reputational vulnerability for all of those involved.

To understand the issues better and shape future practice, the ESHLSG is undertaking a programme of research to gather and analyse the views of health professionals and other stakeholders around commercially-supported medical education. This survey is being sent / made available to all health professionals, health managers and other relevant individuals throughout the UK.